Sleepy in Mom-Town (Unfortunately only the short version )

The Blogger editor is a piece of SHITE.   Hit the Undo button by accident and it loads the post you were working on before and your entire present post is GONE.   It just killed 3 days in Mom-Town except the last 2 days.  And there were GOOD stories in there !!!!

NO, I'm not writing it again, the pictures will have to suffice.  That way my memory will be triggered with respect to the events of those days, but everyone else will just see pictures.  Write a complaint to Google!

And maybe someone should reconsider paying 20-year-old idiots top Dollars to produce CRAP ?

The above Schnitzel looks yummy.  But it has a devastating effect on my gastrointestinal tract, so I will stay away from Blumenhain Restaurant from now on !

A while later I feel the need to visit a gas station to buy some wine & munchies.  BAD IDEA as well. It's RAINING !

Monastery & bicycle

Let's call that look 'frightening'

Heavy Metal !

R2D2 and my bike became friends !

Why am I cycling the 11 km to Dortmund on a freezing morning?

It's because I visited FIVE banks in MomTown trying to exchange US Dollars for Euros.  NONE of them offered currency exchange.
But the clerk in Deutsche Bank told me that I would have more luck at the Deutsche Bank main branch in Dortmund.  So I cycle there.

Here is the transcript:
Me:  
Can I exchange currencies here?
Clerk: 
Yes, we do that.
Do you have an account with us?
NO?
Sorry, then I can't help you.
Next time you come to Germany, bring a card so you can get money from an ATM.

Me:
I think I'd rather go SOMEWHERE ELSE next time !


What a bunch of fools !


Back in my hotel, I thaw out my fingers with an internal treatment of white wine.    Then I'm HUNGRY !  

Now what does that remind me of?

ducks & duck

FABULOUS place !

Next day.  Early lunch with Mother.  The YUK-FOOD Greek place that was rated #1 in MomTown FINALLY closed ;-)

In it's place is a new Italian place.  It's the Grand Opening today and we're the first guests.   They promised free champagne!  OF COURSE we are here, LOL.

Mother might not agree with my decision

A few minutes later I agree with mother.  The salad is FABULOUS in its vinaigrette but the chicken is as dry as cardboard.  Wouldn't it have been nice to at least get it right on your opening day?

What can I say?

I feel sorry for feeling this way, but I am glad that's over and done with.....

I am moving hotels tomorrow, so today would be a good day to explore the route I'm going to take when moving .....

Dreaming of Unicorns !

Not as young as I used to be ....

Found the place.  Turn around .....

I start watching another movie on Netflix.  The Ghost Writer.  I like it.  Except the ending, which is predictable. Roman Polanski directed it.

One of the Spanish guests asks me something when I come back from a smoke break.  His speaks German shockingly well.   He wants to buy cigarettes from the vending machine.  But Germans being Germans, not only no longer exchange foreign currencies, they also don't let you buy cigarettes from a machine unless you stick a GERMAN bank card into the machine.  It's for age verification purposes but as a side effect, it BARS NON-GERMANS from buying cigarettes ;-)

By 19:00 I can't tell anymore whether I'm just tired or whether I'm hungry (given that I had a small breakfast and a salad for lunch, the latter might be the case) and ride back to SOMA.  I need some Vietnamese in my life, LOL, even if it's only food.

The Bun Chap Cam is AMAZING.  My taste buds detect flavours & herbs they have missed for weeks.  NO, it doesn't reach the levels of the Bun Cha in HaNoi or SaiGon, but NOTHING CAN ;-)   HOMESICK !

I also notice something on the menu.   Nuoc mam is what makes Viet food what it is.  And the menu even mentions it "Nuoc Mam dipping sauce" they call it.  

I have to giggle because I know why they don't call it by its proper name.  Most Germans just wouldn't eat anything with FISH SAUCE in it, LOL.

I'm thinking of bringing Mother here for dinner tomorrow.  But maybe not.  She might make a face after eating here.  And I'm not sure I would be able to keep the lid on my pot if she did.

My stomach is happy (much happier than after eating HEAVY German food) and my mood seems to have improved a lot.  I even skip the trip to the gas station to buy another bottle of wine.

6:30

Not bad as a rising time.

9:50 I check out, load the bike and slowly head towards tonight's hotel.

When I make my way to the hotel's reception by way of the breakfast room at 10:40, all of last night's guests are still having breakfast.  So much for the chance of an early departure and an early check-in.  The fact that the old lady at the desk doesn't even have a record of my reservation doesn't help either, LOL. 

No problem.  Let's just visit mother for some lunch.

The mishaps continue when I hear a loud snap-bang when I ride off.  I forgot the luggage strap on the bike, it got wrapped around the axle, and died a quick but painful death by overstretching.

11:00 

Mother is in CHURCH.  WTF?  Mother NEVER EVER went to church unless the preacher was exceptionally HOT & promiscuous!  Now THAT may be a sign of dementia!  The handsome one of the caretakers uses today's holiday as an excuse to shake my hand.  Yum!

Church will take more than one hour, so I head to the Ice Cafe to bridge that time and possibly charge the bike battery.  I do find a seat next to an electrical outlet, but the outlet is Kaputt ;-(

At least the Crepe with cherries still meets expectations ;-) 

And they have WiFi (never noticed it before).  As an aside:  Germany & Austria are the only countries in the world where WiFi is NOT called WiFi.  They call it WLAN. NO, that's part of the travesty, that is NOT a German word, it means Wireless Local Area Network ! Ts ts ts !

Two glasses of wine help me focus and narrow down the time period in which I will escort Mother to Vancouver.   ...

12:00

Is Mother done praying/singing/socializing now?  

12:20

No sign of Mother, but at least I find a working electrical outlet in the Old-Age home ;-)  There is a STEEP hill to climb on the way back to my hotel, so I might as well collect all the electrons I can get.

Two minutes later I see mother entering the building together with what MUST be a preacher.  When he sees me with Mother, he only says "Oh, replace one by the other SO quickly".   LOL. I KNEW that Mother must have a special reason to attend church ;-)

12:45

Battery charged enough? Time to cycle to my hotel?   Anyhoo, there is nothing to talk about with Mother, so I ride off.  And I find some wine & salty pretzels at the gas station along the way.

13:15

NOPE, my room is not ready yet; I might have to eat & drink more while waiting.  

I'm certainly getting my cherry fill today. A YUMMY walnut cake topped with sour cherries accompanied by white wine on a smoking terrace under palm trees, LOL.  I almost feel like I'm back HOME !

13:45

Now, let's see whether they get my room ready soon .... 

They do.....

I wake up GROGGY after my nap.  Exhaustion or an overabundance of cleaning product residue in the room?  I'll find out tomorrow morning ...

Time to go for a quick bike ride to wake up.

Old Kaiser Willie enjoying the view

 I assume that during Kaiser Wilhelm's times, the view was a nicer one.  No ugly mixture of factory chimneys & Autobahns in those days ....  And then Germans from here come to Vietnam and complain that the Viets are ruining their nicest views with hotel complexes.   Get the irony ? 

Back in the room, I FINALLY wash my hoodie.  They have one of those heated towel racks here and I hope it will be dry by tomorrow.  If all else fails, they do have a blow-drier, LOL.

I'm HUNGRY.  All those cherries didn't last long.  Since my hoodie is dry and my bike is stored away, I might as well eat in the hotel.   Steak with Pepper sauce.  My favourite !  But for 27 Euros ????   Ah Screw it, that's what I paid for a simple chicken curry in Zurich in February, and this should be MUCH better (we hope).

The steak is AMAZING.  It's a huge pile of cow meat that usually I would run away from, but after taking one bite with the green peppercorn sauce, I actually finish the whole thing.   Wholly unexpected in a touristy hotel restaurant like this.

The included breakfast in this 'fancy' is anything but fancy.  Ah well....
Time to check out, head back to yet another hotel, leave most of my luggage there, and head off again to see Mother.  Good thing I have an e-bike ;-0

I take Mother to the Ice-ceam Parlour.  

WHY doesn't she EVER smile ?

Yawn!
I'm running out of smokes !

I leave mother at 11:30 and cycle up-hill to the gas station where they sell smokes and the good wine ;-)

10 minutes later, the e-bike motor just stops working.  The battery is HALF FULL !  WTF?   I try switching it on and off a few times; I look for loose connections; I remove and re-insert the battery pack.   NADA !  I'm pedaling without assistance and arrive at my hotel correspondingly sweaty.

Housekeeping has already finished my room at 12:30. THANK YOU !!!

The e-bike battery is fully charged when I wake up.  I connect it to the bike. NOTHING.  The panel still displays the half-empty battery, so there is a severed connection somewhere.  Which means I will have to PEDAL the thing back to the shop later today or tomorrow morning.  But I think it will be today because tomorrow morning I'll have all my luggage with me.   Here comes exercise ....

16:45 
I've cycled the heavy bike the slight incline against head wind and returned it to the rental place.  I've also checked the bus schedule for the return trip to my hotel.   There is NO BUS between 17:47 & 19:17.  That's 1.5 HOURS with NO BUS.  I'll be taking a taxi home ....  I can't wait to get out of Germany !

nguoi Duc .....

I'm already in a questionable mood and dinner with mother does not improve it.  About her impending visit to Grandma "What am I going to pack?; I have NO ONE to help me !".  This is when I finally blow my lid.  She has a roommate, the care-taking staff of her old-age home AND her state-appointed caretaker, but still whines that she has to do everything by herself.  NO, that is NOT dementia speaking, that is O-tone MY MOTHER.   When I tell her that I just went twice around the world without ANYONE planning or doing ANYTHING for ME , she just gives me that absolutely meaningless facial expression that in her mind (present or gone) covers ANY eventuality. 

Only, it really NEVER works.











At least there is a taxi waiting at the train station (there usually isn't) and I get to my hotel quickly.